


For All You're Worth

by Vixx_ChickBap



Category: VIXX
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Neglect, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jaehwan and Hakyeon are Taekwoon's Older Brothers, M/M, Taekwoon is Younger than Wonshik
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 17:42:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14836232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vixx_ChickBap/pseuds/Vixx_ChickBap
Summary: People are still looking at the young man as he wipes his head with the sleeve of his dress shirt, picking up the ruined book as Hakyeon and Jaehwan make their way over towards him. They kneel on the marbled floor, completely uncaring of the alcohol that seeps into their pants and stain the nice fabric, all they cared about was their little brother and making sure he was okay. ‘Little brother, are you alright?’ It’s Hakyeon who speaks first, his heart clenching so painfully as the other looks up at him with a sad smile painted onto his face. Sure he is smiling, but there are tears burning in his eyes and trailing down his cheeks, leaving shiny trails int their path.





	For All You're Worth

**Author's Note:**

> Hakyeon: 25  
> Jaehwan:23  
> Taekwoon:22
> 
> Wonshik: 23  
> Hongbin:21  
> Sanghyuk: 20
> 
>  
> 
> WARNINGS: Child Neglect, Implied Child Abuse, Smut in Future Chapters, Violence

Taekwoon is toying with the bottom of his white dress shirt as he stands silently behind his two older brothers, teeth worrying into his bottom lip out of nervousness. The young man lifts up one of his hands to tuck some of his hair behind his ears, his hair tied back into a ponytail like his parents had demanded of him; neat and presentable. Hakyeon, his eldest brother, is speaking to a guest of his fathers with a tone that is so polite and kind, full of the confidence that Taekwoon himself was sorely lacking. Jaehwan is using his loud voice to fill in those gaps of silence before they fell awkward; and more often then not being returned in laughter and chuckles.   
’Oh Mr Jung, your children are absolutely wonderful.’ Says the beautiful wife of an employee, her voice is soft and full of amusement as she directions her attention to the two young man that were standing before her. She doesn’t even break a sweat looking in Taekwoon’s attention, it was like he wasn’t even there.  
Taekwoon’s father merrily agrees with a smile on his face, his eyes filled with so much pride as he looks at his two eldest children with a proud smile. But all of that melts away the moment that he lays his eyes on his youngest son, who avoids his gaze and opted to look at the couples dancing around them. Hakyeon though, when he catches his brother’s attention, offers his brother a kind and encouraging smile in hopes of reassuring him. Taekwoon returns it, but it isn’t enough to full someone like Hakyeon who is able to see how forced the smile truly was. 

The dark haired male is forced to look away from his brother when he feels a crushing grip on his frail looking wrist, feeling himself being pulled away from the eyes of the guests around him. Looking up at who has dragged him away, he isn’t surprised to find that it was his mother who was staring back at him; annoyance on her face. ‘Instead of acting miserable, be useful and entertain our visitors.’ The voice that she uses on Hakyeon and Jaehwan has completely vanished and instead is left a hard and vicious sentence and dark tones; her words laced with a bitterness that is reserved just for Taekwoon. ‘O-of course, mother.’ The young man is already aware of the fact that he is going to be chastised for his stutter, a habit that he doesn’t have that much control over. He’s been trying for two years with no results of his stutter ever easing.   
‘Speak properly, stop that habit.’ She hisses in a low voice, not wishing to speak any louder than a whisper in fears of being heard by those who look up to and respect the woman. She wouldn’t want to ruin what was a ‘perfect’ reputation. Shakily nodding his head, Taekwoon is pushed into the direction of someone that Taekwoon can’t be too sure that he has been before.  
‘Good evening, I-I-I’m Jung Taekwoon, p-pleasure to meet you.’ As he is greeting those before him, Taekwoon has a slight flush on his cheeks from the embarrassment of his speech. He chews down onto his lower lip and remains silent when he hears the sound of someone’s wife laughing, and he can see his own mother roll her eyes before she walked away from him. ‘Jung Taekwoon? I thought that Seoguk only had two children?’ A man that went by the name Joon notes with a eyebrow arched up high, and Taekwoon can only simply force a smile on his face as he nods his head in reply. He has to pretend that it doesn’t hurt that his father acts as though he wasn’t born most of the times, he’s gotten so good at acting in front of these people. 

‘I understand, Sir. My f-father likes to gush about my brothers, they m-make him very proud.’ He isn’t lying, something his parents have scared him into even doing once, but he leaves out the portion of his parents out right hating him with everything that they had.   
‘Well then Taekwoon, do you work with your brothers?’ And these moment here is usually around the time that people begin to understand why his own father has never once mentioned him. ‘No, no. I’m an a-art student, S-Sir.’ Replied the younger man, and it’s painful jolt he feels when he hears laughter as a reply to what he had said; chest aching and tight as he waited for for the usual bunch of phrases and questions. ‘Art? Really, that’s childish of you.’ Said the man is if he wasn’t insulting everything that Taekwoon was; but all Taekwoon could do was nod his head with a smile. ‘You need to do something that will actually pay for the bills.’ Sneered Joon, and Taekwoon had to resist the urge to roll his eyes and nod his head; but he had to smile and play pretend he was okay with this.  
‘Actually, Taekwoon is wonderfully and beautifully talented. He can easily pay for the bills.’ Turning his head, Taekwoon turns his head and see his brother Jaehwan now standing beside him. They share a look with each other, Jaehwan giving a small and reassuring smile; kind and calm as he assessed the situation that his brother had been placed in. ‘But surely you could teach your brother do chose something… less embarrassing.’ Clenching his fists tightly, Jaehwan forces a smile, his little brother coping his own actions.  
’I can assure you, Sir, that Taekwoon’s career choice isn’t embarrassing in the slightest.’  
’So free to fail then? Because that is all that he’ll do, Jaehwan.’ By now, Taekwoon is able to easily brush off anything horrible that anyone says, but his brother doesn’t hold those some traits as he so does. He turns to look at his elder brother and sees how the other takes a deep breathe to calm down to prevent himself from saying something horrible and regrettable. ‘As much a-as we could love to stay and chat, w-we must entertain other guests.’ Taekwoon takes the lead right now, Jaehwan following his actions when his little brothers bows. The younger knew that his protective big brother was one word away from saying something that would back lash on their family. 

Once they walk away from those horrid group of people, Jaehwan finally rolls his eyes as he lets out a mocking scoff. He barely takes a moment to glance back over at those they had just been conversing with. ‘What a bunch of fucking grade A assholes.’ He hisses and Taekwoon just smiles as he patted his elder brother on the top of his head, not wanting Jaehwan to dwell on the events that had just unfolded. ‘It’s okay, H-Hwannie. I’m used to it a-anyway.’ And in no way what-so-ever does that made the brown haired male feel any better, it makes him madder that Taekwoon is even able to say that. ‘They’re all assholes, this isn’t fair to you at all.’ That doesn’t get him a reply from his little brother, so he decided that he’s going to change the subject into something else. Anything else.  
‘So, see any boys that you fancy, Taekkie?’ The reaction to Jaehwan’s words were instantaneous, Taekwoon’s cheeks flaring up bright red and his eyes widening at what had been uttered. ‘Shh, o-our parents might over h-hear you!’ He yells in a hushed whisper, and all Jaehwan can do is sigh as he shakes his head. But he lowers his voice anyone for his brother’s sake. ‘This isn’t something you need to be ashamed of, Taekwoonie. It isn’t something you should have to hide.’ Hakyeon and Jaehwan are both so wonderfully accepting of Taekwoon, anything that he does could make them impossibly proud. But their younger brother would never believe them, he would always believed that if they left him behind they would be so much happier. ‘Of course I should be ashamed of it, Jaehwan.’ And that outright breaks the other heart, this idea-ology has always been drilled into Taekwoon head until he finally had no other choice but to believe it.  
‘So is Hakyeon unnatural then? He likes boys and girls, should he ashamed of it?’ Jaehwan knows that he’s being unfair to Taekwoon, but he doesn’t know what else to do at this point. He wants Taekwoon to see that being gay isn’t wrong and shouldn’t be afraid to express who he would one day fall in love with. ‘No of course not, Jaehwan. You know that I don’t think that!’ Taekwoon sounded offended that the mere idea of Jaehwan thinking that negatively of his big brother, he loves Hakyeon so dearly. ‘Then why should it be different for you?’  
And all Taekwoon can do is remain silent, Hakyeon was always going to be so much better than him at everything that they did. All Taekwoon was is a failed art student with no positive future in store for him. ‘Jaehwan, can we please talk anything anything else. Anything?’ At the sound of the others desperate and pleading tone, Jaehwan gives in and does in fact change the topic of what they were talking about. 

‘Father is drinking tonight, I don’t want you near him.’ Jaehwan says in a dark tone, the anger there was clear and he notices how quick Taekwoon was to nod his head. There was resentment and a horribly hidden fear in his eyes, Jaehwan feeling his own anger well up as he thought about how Taekwoon was already treated when their father was drunk, he was cruel and inhumane to his own son. ‘Of course.’ Taekwoon replied, because dealing with his drunk father would always end in public humiliation for him, he would avoid the man as best as he could to make sure that the night didn’t end with a total disaster. 

Of course though, avoiding his own father wasn’t always going to be something that was much easier said than done. 

 

Towards the end of the night, were the guests were growing tired and beginning to leave the work part is when Seoguk had seen his son for the first time in a few hours. Taekwoon was sitting in an empty area of the party hall, his nose buried deep in an art book; and all that did was flare up the anger that his father always kept reserved for his youngest son.   
’Ah, there is my useless son, with his head once more in the fucking clouds.’ Gasping in fear and fright, Taekwoon hears his father’s voice boom through the half full room. His eyes are wide and mouth slightly open as the book is ripped from his grasp and held up in front of him by his angered father. Taekwoon’s eyes begin to water from pure sadness when the book is thrown onto the floor, the elder man tipping what remained of his beer onto it. Taekwoon is left watching sadly as the liquid seeps into the already fragile pages of what was his favourite book. Taekwoon is quick to drop onto his knees from sitting on the chair, picking up his favourite book every so gently, the pages already ripping so matter how carefully he treated the object. ‘Why did you do that?’ Taekwoon demanded to know as he looks at the words on the pages, all of them blurred and almost impossible to make out. His heart broke so quickly in his chest, this was the book that Jaehwan and Hakyeon got him once they learn that he had loved art so dearly; it meant everything to him. He has had it for so many years, he had treated it as if it had been made out of gold. 

Hakyeon was on the sides watching the scene unfold, and Taekwoon could see how Jaehwan was holding him back even as anger was clear on his own expression. The younger of the two brothers was trying to stop Hakyeon from doing something that he could possibly regret once morning had come. ‘Why can’t you be like your brothers, huh Taekwoon? Do something useful like you’re siblings are!?’ His father barked at him loudly, gathering the attention of those who hadn’t already been watching the scene unfold. All they did was sit and watch as a father humiliated the hell out of his own child, Taekwoon keeping his head down as tears blurred his vision.   
‘You’re a disappointment to this family, Taekwoon.’ Slurred Seoguk. ‘If it were up to me, you wouldn’t even be a Jung anymore.’ Taekwoon looks up at his father’s face, it was red with anger and eyes half-lidded from the booze that is working through his body. And at this point, his verbal filter was completely gone. ‘I-I’m sorry.’ Was the only thing that he could reply with, all other words failing him at this point. He said sorry as if it was going to make the disappointment that Seoguk held for him go away; but nothing he ever did could fix that. ‘Well, sorry isn’t good enough. You’re not good enough.’ As that hangs in the air for a few silent moments, Seoguk looks down at the ruined book with a pleased expression one last time; a drunken smile on his face before he staggered away from the scene he created. 

People are still looking at the young man as he wipes his head with the sleeve of his dress shirt, picking up the ruined book as Hakyeon and Jaehwan make their way over towards him. They kneel on the marbled floor, completely uncaring of the alcohol that seeps into their pants and stain the nice fabric, all they cared about was their little brother and making sure he was okay. ‘Little brother, are you alright?’ It’s Hakyeon who speaks first, his heart clenching so painfully as the other looks up at him with a sad smile painted onto his face. Sure he is smiling, but there are tears burning in his eyes and trailing down his cheeks, leaving shiny trails int their path. ‘S-Sure. I’m s-sorry about the book. I-It’s completely ruined now.’ Taekwoon’s voice cracks even as he wills it not to do so, he doesn’t want to seem weak to the two men that he looks up to. Hakyeon is looking down at him with a frown on his face, shaking his head at something that his brother had uttered. ‘I don’t care about the book, Taekwoon. I care about you, so don’t lie and tell me you’re okay!’ The eldest of the three siblings bursts out, not even able to understand how Taekwoon can even begin to keep up the facade of being okay with everything. ‘I know you’re not.’ He adds in a lower tone this time, the three of them pushing themselves up to his feet; Taekwoon cradling the unusable book close to his chest.   
’What do you expect of me, Hakyeon?’ Taekwoon isn’t able to help but hiss, and he knows that his brothers care about him but what was it that they seriously expected of him right now?   
’Of course I’m not fine, but what other choice to I have but to put up with this? All I can do it get over it and move on.’ Both Jaehwan and Hakyeon are surprised of how Taekwoon even think like that; that the only option he has is to accept it. How can Taekwoon act so dismissively of what he is treated like? 

’I’m leaving, I cant stay h-here.’ Taekwoon only just manages to leave his brother’s sights as a fresh wave of tears roll down his cheeks, making a beeline for the door and away from them. Watching their loved one leave, all the brothers can do is sigh as they look at each other. Their at a loss for what to do, Taekwoon is there little brother and they haven’t been looking out for him like they are supposed to. Both of them knew that he was far from okay and were beginning to think that they couldn’t help him even if they tried to.   
’Boys, can you be dears for me and clean up the drink your father accidentally spilled?’ Jaehwan scoffs as he turns around to look at his mother who was now standing behind them, beyond disgusted as she just dismisses her own son. She was supposed to protect him, even if it was against her own horrible husband. ‘Accidentally? You seriously think father accidentally humiliated our brother too?’ Jaehwan hisses, eyes narrowed as he looked at the middle aged woman before he could even think about what it was that he was saying to her. ‘Taekwoon’s okay, dears. Your father was just teaching him a lesson.’ Hakyeon has never been this truly sickened by her and by his father two, he hates the resentment that they helf for someone who hasn’t done anything wrong. ‘An lesson? Are you f-’ Hakyeon’s own rant is over before it could even begin, Jaehwan placing a hand on his shoulder and shaking his head to stop what his brother was going to say; now wasn’t the time. ‘Let’s just clean this up so we can go.’ All Hakyeon wants to do is push his brother’s hand away from him and yell at his parents until he lost his voice, but he finds himself nodding his head in agreement. Now wasn’t the time to do this nor was it the place, and getting angry wasn’t going to help their little brother. 

 

It much later that night, could have even been in the early hours of the morning but sleep wasn’t going to reach Taekwoon now as he sat at the desk in his room. His eyes were glued onto the ruined book that sat in front of him, his eyes red rimmed and puffy. His lips too are red from biting into them so often, dark bags sat under his eyes that contrasted his natural pale complexion.   
He wants to get mad, to yell and scream at his parents until he could not do it anymore, but he finds that he simply doesn’t have it in him to do so. What would it even achieve in the end? He shakes his head, there was no use trying over spilled milk, right? Sniffling, he pushes himself up from the office chair and picks up the book he loved so much over to place it into the trash bin near the foot of his head. What a waste of a perfectly good book… He crawls into his bed finally, having changed into his sleeping clothes the moment he had gotten him hours ago, he turns off the lamp by his bed. He doesn’t close his eyes to sleep, simply laying on his back to look up at the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing, barely able to see it in the dim light coming from under the door. His parents are loud and drunk, having little to no respect him him or his brothers trying to get some sleep; what did they care?

Taekwoon turns onto his side and faces the cupboard that held Polaroid photos of his brothers and him, only having one photo and his parents holding him when he was a child. They look so overjoyed with him in their arms, his mother looking at him like he was the centre of her world. He had had been at one point, but no he can’t walk into a room without them hating him for simply breathing.   
He’s now the kid they wished they never had; something his father had admitted thousands of times in the past. 

Closing his eyes, Taekwoon plays that his dreams take him somewhere that he is loved, where he could be happy. Somewhere were someone looked at him and wanted him. 

But of course, those dreams would never become a reality for him.


End file.
